1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to database technology and, more particularly, to adaptive data management systems that may be accessed via the world wide web and, even more particularly, asset control systems utilized to manipulate, organize, and display product and/or component data, in a military repair/storage depot environment, despite constantly changing requirements due to various third party (i.e. customer) demands and/or funding restrictions.
2. Description of the Background
A military repair/storage depot is an extremely dynamic environment. At any given moment, any number of high- and low-tech systems/components (“assets”) may be in the process of being transferred (i.e. shipped) into, or out of, the facility. As the name “repair/storage” depot implies, the incoming and outgoing assets generally belong to third parties and are present at the facility to take advantage of either the technical skills/knowledge of the personnel stationed there, or the warehouse space that is available on-site. Assets present for either reason must be carefully tracked to ensure that they are readily available to their owners. In this regard, the assets and any allocation of the depot's resources (e.g. repair personnel, storage space) must be matched in the most efficient manner possible.
Inefficiencies in the tracking of assets and the allocation of resources can result in significant asset unavailability and increased labor costs. Therefore, it is particularly important with large scale repair/storage contracting to provide a database system capable of proper and timely asset control despite widely varying third party needs.
Four examples of widely varying third party requirements are as follows: Customer A has simple assets but requires (1) any shipment of those assets, into or out of a repair/storage facility, to be accompanied by specified shipping documents and (2) any database containing information about those assets to be secure and to provide limited access for certain viewers. Customer B has simple assets, although quite different from those of Customer A, requiring only minimal database security (i.e. allowing the data to be shared by many individuals) and utilizes a traditional supply support system (e.g. applying integrated logistics support “ILS” management techniques as described within DEF STAN 00-60 during the project life cycle). Customer C is a governmental entity, such as a Navy or Army base, dealing with complex products that contain sub-products. Customer D requires paper movement only (i.e. a typical support role for inventory management). In the context of an asset control system, each of these hypothetical third parties will require a different customer profile. Moreover, as time passes, an existing customer's profile (e.g. data access requirements, shipping procedures) may change, funding sources may change, and new third party accounts will need to be established. Each of these changes will necessitate one or more changes to the database system tracking the various assets.
There is commercially available software that may be utilized for asset control (i.e. to establish job plans and work plans). One such job planning software package is MAXIMO®, a program developed and available from PSDI, Inc. MAXIMO® is designed to help organizations reduce equipment downtime, closely control and track maintenance expenses, cut spare parts inventories and costs, improve safety, increase purchasing efficiency, and more effectively deploy productive assets, personnel, and other resources. MAXIMO® is an advanced materials management solution that offers web-based storeroom management. Customers can use their Internet browser to create and send material requisitions directly via MAXIMO®, where they are filled from storeroom inventory or by purchase from a manufacturer or complementary supplier. Orders can be executed electronically. Unfortunately, while MAXIMO®, as supplied by PSDI, could be used to address some aspects of the present need (i.e. asset control in a military repair/storage depot environment), it possesses only limited flexibility and, therefore, would require the expenditure of a significant amount of capital to complete the customization/reprogramming effort needed to render it fully functional.
Other commercially available software programs that are useful in resource planning are job standards programs. These programs are used to create, maintain, and manipulate standards for maintenance work (i.e. detailing the steps to be taken and man-hours/trades needed to complete a task), allowing a user to construct new standards using information retained in a database. An example of this type of software is AutoMOST® available from H.B. Maynard and Company, Inc.
There are also a number of patents that are illustrative of “adaptive data management” software applications. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,970,475 to Barnes et al. (see reference numeral 14 in FIG. 2) and 6,157,928 to Sprenger et al. (See reference numeral 272 in FIG. 5) disclose data access via Internet or web-based applications. Additionally, the Barnes et al. patent provides an example of customer/user-definable data formats/templates.
Thus, dynamic scalable web-enabled databases with customer/user-definable data formats/templates are fairly well-known. However, none of the foregoing examples are capable of gathering data from customers in real time, and then constructing data files on-the-fly. It would be greatly advantageous to provide an adaptive web-based asset control system that utilizes web technology to gather and present asset control data despite constantly changing requirements due to various third party demands and/or funding restrictions.